Sooner Practice Report: Nov. 30

Sooners Illustrated caught up with the team for the final post-practice interviews prior to this weekend's Big 12 Championship game against Nebraska, and here's a quotebook for what was talked about.

Tuesday Quotebook:

"No, I'm not interested in any job. You know, I'm not looking at any job. I don't have no intentions to visit with anybody. I've got a great job, and we've got a big time job this week, so, you know, there's nothing really to talk about."—Venables on the possibility of going to Miami

"I just think the consistency that he plays with. And guys aren't pressing when the simple things are breaking down. Again, gap integrity, containing on a pressure, not being in the middle when you should. You know, everybody starts to press and tries to make plays, and when you try to do too much and try to get outside the confines of the defense, bad things happen. And so again, it can work in your favor when guys are again just doing the simple basic execution things, and again when small things start to break down, it can snowball on you in a hurry."—Venables on what linebacker Austin Box has brought

"Yeah, we'll need him to be that way. And he won't be alone. I thought when we played Stanford—and, you know, I think you're seeing the same type of Stanford team that we saw at the end of the year without the quarterback, I get it, because we were glad he didn't play because he's a great player—but that type of physicality, the multiplicity that they have offensively. Our guys played a really good team, and we beat a really good team because of that physicality that we played with, and this game will require exactly that." —Venables on the emergence of defensive end/linebacker Ronnell Lewis last year against Stanford and the physicality he and the rest of the team played with

"Well it'll be, it just depends on what they give you. They have a three tight package and two backs, you might have two strong side linebackers out there sometimes, so, you know, there'll be a combination of Joseph Ibiloye and Daniel Franklin. Those will be your main guys." —Venables on who will be at strong side linebacker

"Yeah, you know, we've really just focused on ourselves and really just worked together as a team and, you know, Landry's come together. You know, the offensive line has come together, and this whole season, you know, we've come together every game. We've had some bumps in the road and stuff like that, but we've really come together, really gelled together and I think it's really paid off for all of us." —Right tackle Eric Mensik on how much the offense has improved since the Nebraska game last year

"This whole season, he was thrown into the fire last year. You know, he had to just kind of step up, and he did good towards the end last year, and then this season he's really evolved, really become more sound and just he trusts the O-line. He trusts that everybody's doing their job, and he just sits back there and, you know, reads and he watches film all the time, and he's always nitpicking on certain things. You know, certain receivers doing certain routes, and so to have him step up and be a leader like that is really something special. It's good to see that, you know, he's taken this team under his wing." —Mensik on quarterback Landry Jones taking his play to another level

"Yeah, you know, when we lost to A&M, that was really tough for all of us. And we kind of took it to heart, took it as a chip on our shoulder that, you know, we can't do that again. We can't be on the one-yard line and not be able to punch it in like that three times, and so that next week and the week since Coach Wilson has really harped on us. You know, we've got to do our job, be sound and so, you know, we've kind of taken that and learned from it and been able to kind of just improve every week since then." —Mensik on the feeling when they lost to Texas A&M and what has changed after that

"Absolutely yeah, I mean, [Taylor] Martinez, you know, is a tremendous competitor, tremendous athlete, great runner, very, very adequate passer. He's better than, you know, maybe he's given credit. Now, he's not going to make you forget Sam Bradford or anybody like that, don't get me wrong, but that's not his style either. But with the run game and the play action passes and those types of things, he's been very efficient for them. Now, I don't know. Maybe you guys know the official word whether he's playing or not . I don't care. Trust me, we're expecting he'll play. Now, if he doesn't play, the other guys come in and played well for him. He's not as good a running threat, certainly, as Martinez is. I mean, that's not a knock on him. It's just a fact. Look at the numbers. But he has been very efficient himself in running the offense and doing the things that they're asking him to do with that offense, so either way we're going to face a really good Nebraska team no matter who plays at quarterback, and we'll be ready certainly for either one or both." —Defensive ends coach Bobby Jack Wright on the situation with Taylor Martinez and whether or not he'll play

"When he came back from that knee injury, he just it was like, ‘Okay, I've been gone. I miss this. Here's my opportunity. I'm not going to pass up an opportunity.' And he's really invested. He's really prepared himself well. He's playing better than he was playing prior to the injury, in all honesty." —Wright on Lewis' play since returning from his injury